Have you ever wonder how your own name’s popularity has changed over the years? I have. And I examined the data of Turkey’s Statistics Institute about the most preferred names between the years 1950-2018 on the weekend.

Each year, Turkey’s Statistics Institute shares the top 100 list of names given to boys and girls. When I look for a few names, I found it hard to track data on the list. Of course, checking at two different files for the names given to boys and girls like Deniz has also made my job complicated.

I transformed the data into a visually easier form to track using the Google Data Studio platform as simple weekend entertainment.

You can reach the panel from the link.

Some Interesting Data

My little friend Defne (37 days old) gave this motivation to do it and I especially thank her. (Happy birthday Defne) I learned this thanks to her. While the name of Defne was the 51st most preferred name in 2008 and it became the 3rd most preferred name in 2018.

It is said that this popularity has increased with the name of the main character of a local TV series called Kiralık Aşk which started to broadcast in 2015. Again, there are a few cases where the names of the TV Series characters are given to the children born in Turkey. (Onedio- ‘Which TV Series Characters’ Names We are Giving to Our Children Most for The Last 20 Years?’)

It is possible to see the effects of politicians, not only the characters in TV series on the possible names that will be given to the newborns in Turkey. For example, the name of Bülent gains popularity after the 1960s but this decreases dramatically after the 1980s.

 Quick note: After the military coup of 12 September 1980, Bülent Ecevit was detained and forbidden from engaging in politics for ten years as of 1982.

I wanted to share my Google Data Studio report which I created with parents who are looking for names for their baby for support.

All most popular male and female names can be reviewed one by one based on year.

Special Notes

• Order of Preference: This shows the order in which the name listed in the top 100 names given to the babies born in that year. 1 indicates that it is the most preferred name. (The name Duru, for instance, ranked 24th among the names given to girls born in 2013 and it has risen 11th place in 2018)
• The boys and girls are listed in different top 100 lists for names.
• If you can’t see any data in that year for a specific name, that indicates the name you have selected is not listed in the 100 most popular names.

Invitation

I will organize my first webinar on Thursday, May 2, at 4.00 pm, with the invitation of the esteemed “İçerik Bulutu”. You can reach register and access to details from the link. 

Webinar Registration

Thanks to my personal curiosity this exercise has been an enjoyable weekend activity. Still, I’m actually in a phase where I’m working to improve my data visualization skills. I wish it will be a year in which I will generate more content on this topic.

You can provide your questions, suggestions, feedback via Twitter, or leaving a comment on the website, I will try to answer them in the next posts.